Last season, it was exceptionally rare to find back-to-back games that the Iowa field-hockey team wasn’t favored in.

But that’s exactly the case this weekend.

The ninth-ranked Hawkeyes will open up the ’09 slate with two games in two days as a part of the 2009 Big Ten/ACC Challenge in Iowa City. And while Kirk Ferentz’s football team will open its schedule Sept. 5 with the likes of Northern Iowa, head coach Tracey Griesbaum’s crew will start its campaign against two teams expected to compete for a Division-I national championship.

Iowa will take on defending NCAA runner-up and second-ranked Wake Forest Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Then, Griesbaum’s squad will return to Grant Field to play No. 4 North Carolina on Aug. 30, also at 11:30 a.m.

Defeating either team won’t be easy, but Griesbaum has always preferred to schedule the best of the best.

“As far as the caliber [of opponents], I think it’s really good,” she said. “Because you can’t afford not to be prepared. You can’t afford to have one part of your game that is not really on.”

Her team learned that lesson at last season’s challenge in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Hawkeyes led the Demon Deacons, 2-0, following the first half of play, but Wake Forest stormed back in the second frame, scoring three unanswered goals to fend off Griesbaum’s club and win, 3-2.

But the very next day, the ACC got a taste of its own medicine. Iowa rallied from a 2-0 deficit to dethrone top-ranked and defending NCAA champion North Carolina, 3-2. The loss ended a 25-game winning streak for the Tar Heels.

With that recent history in mind, the Hawkeyes are aware they will have a target on their back when Carolina invades Iowa City this weekend.

Senior captain Tricia Dean views it as a challenge that the team is ready to undertake. On the other hand, she didn’t rule out the possibility of revenge playing a factor when the Hawkeyes clash with Wake Forest on Saturday.

“We know that we could have held it a little longer,” she said. “It’s definitely something we want to redeem ourselves with.”

The desire for redemption alone won’t be enough to carry the Hawkeyes to a victory over the Deacons, lead by 19th-year head coach Jennifer Averill. Her squad will be looking for its 10th-straight Final Four appearance this season after falling to Maryland in last year’s national championship game.

Despite a loss of key talent from last year, Iowa is more than capable of knocking off the ACC powerhouse. It will be just the second challenge they have hosted, and senior captain Meghan Beamesderfer is one of many Hawkeyes anxious to protect Grant Field.

“We have to defend our home turf,” she said. “That’s just something that we take pride in every day. We practice on it. We just feed off of that when it’s game time.”

There is plenty of discussion that Iowa may be experiencing a “rebuilding” year. But the Lititz, Pa., native is ready to take the field this weekend and dismiss that idea.

“Everybody has this mindset about us losing a lot of seniors,” Beamesderfer said. “Whatever. But just the personnel on our team, we have so much heart, so much determination. It just gets me fired up because I feel like we’re going to surprise some people.”

Follow DI field-hockey reporter Jordan Garretson on Twitter @jghawks as he Tweets live from this weekend’s Big Ten/ACC Challenge.